Storied Spanish luxury house Balenciaga is staging a rare exhibition this weekend, as part of the 2023 Journees Europeennes du Patrimoine (European Heritage Days) event in Paris.
Called The Woman Behind the Dress, the show brings together never-seen-before looks mid-construction and offers a glimpse into the gilded world of clients of the label's founder, Cristobal Balenciaga.
A master of construction, Balenciaga’s work remains hugely influential, both as the man his contemporaries Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy considered a genius, and also for the new shapes and silhouettes he created around the female body.
Even more than fifty years after his death, quite how he crafted many of his looks remains elusive. Case in point, when the Victoria & Albert Museum staged an exhibition of his work in 2017, it had to X-ray the gowns to unravel some of the mysteries of how they were put together.
As custom looks, each was made to fit the precise measurements of one woman's body and as a result, echo the deeply intimate bond between customer and couturier. It was to Balenciaga each women confided her body-centric insecurities, and for whom the designer created bespoke solutions.
Clients including the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, Princess Grace of Monaco and socialites Francine Weisweiller, Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Mona Von Bismarck all turned to Balenciaga to create one-of-a-kind looks.
A glimpse inside a monied universe that few will ever be part of, it is a fascinating journey through cutting-edge fashion – showcasing how skillful construction is used to draw the eye around a look, and to disguise one area by highlighting another.
Displayed as toiles, an early version of the dress made onto the tailors' dummy, each shows how Balenciaga created balance and form with padding that would eventually sit under the finished gown. It shows the very hand of the designer as he tried to cater to the very real demands of his clients.
Conjuring new shapes that redefined the female form, Balenciaga ushered in a new era of design and gave his clients confidence by reinventing silhouettes.
The Woman Behind the Dress exhibition is running at 40 rue de Sevres, Paris on Saturday and Sunday
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
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Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
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Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
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Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
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Total eligible population
About 57.5 million people
51.1 million received a jab
6.4 million have not
Where are the unvaccinated?
England 11%
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Northern Ireland 14%
Sting & Shaggy
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(Interscope)
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The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
